


The Unexpected

by talkingtoangxls



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Gen, Home Videos, Jack Zimmermann's Overdose, Mother-Son Relationship, POV Alicia Zimmermann
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-11 22:06:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10475430
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/talkingtoangxls/pseuds/talkingtoangxls
Summary: When Jack is released from the rehabilitation center and moves back home, Alicia isn't sure what to expect.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Things from Alicia's POV.
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters used in this story nor the webcomic that they come from. All rights go to Ngozi. Not affiliated with Ngozi or Check, Please!.

When Jack is released from the rehabilitation center and moves back home, Alicia isn't sure what to expect. Bob distances himself because he thinks that what happened is somehow his fault, even though Jack assured him that it wasn't. So Alicia does a lot of the talking when they visit him. And even when they're not visiting him, she finds that she's leading the conversations at home too. 

She expects Jack to isolate himself; he's always been one to want alone time when he's upset.

She expects little outbursts, because she knows he can get overwhelmed easily in stressful situations, and the past six months have been the most stressful of his life.

She expects him to try and find something hockey-related to fill his days with, so she's unsurprised but still happy for him when he finds the pee-wee team. 

What she doesn't expect is to find him in the basement more than once, settled in front of the old TV, watching home videos. There are ones of him running around barefoot outside in the summer, only three or four, squealing while Bob chases him and Alicia laughs behind the camera. She watches from the stairwell, unnoticed, as Jack slips another tape into the VCR. This time she's in front of the camera, and she remembers when Bob took the video. Jack is perched on her hip, just under a year old. There's music playing in the background, something from the eighties, and she's swaying along to it. When the chorus starts again, she has Jack's hand in her own, and she starts dancing with him. She spins, and his head is thrown back and he's laughing that little baby belly laugh that melted her heart every time she heard it. She can hear herself singing along too, and it's pitchy but she doesn't care, because Jack -- the Jack on the floor in front of her -- is humming along to the song quietly, and she feels her heart melt again. Even after all these years, he can still melt her heart, but he can also make it ache like nothing she's ever felt. 

She doesn't expect him to come downstairs some mornings, still in his pajamas, with bags under his eyes and messy hair, like he's been rolling in his bed all night -- which she knows he has. Those mornings, she makes sure to clear her schedule of what she can, and make herself comfortable on the couch with a mug of tea and a book, slippered feet propped on the coffee table. She puts on some soft music, and she waits. Jack will usually root around in the pantry, pulling out a few crackers and get a glass of water, and join her on the couch. He'll stay at the opposite end of the couch, making his way slowly through his glass of water before he starts nodding off. She knows he has restless nights -- ones where, no matter what, he can't make himself fall asleep. So she puts her mug and her book down on the coffee table at her feet, and she beckons him closer. He lays his head in her lap, and she reaches for her book again. One hand combs his hair away from his face, and the other one holds the book. She hears his breathing even out, and she lets herself look at his face. She could see what the past months and even years of hockey and anxiety and medications had done to him, she could still see the little boy from those home videos, head thrown back laughing, and it gave her hope for his future. 

She really doesn't expect Jack to tell them that he's decided to go to college in America, the same university that she went to. He wants to major in history, he says, and they have a hockey team there, and he's already applied and is waiting for a reply. Of course, Bob and Alicia support him, because he's found something that he's excited about, and he has a light in his eyes that they haven't seen in so long, and even though it's faint, it's still there. When he moves down to Samwell, his parents are there helping him move into a dorm. He'd been down there for a tour, but it was his first time living away from home since rehab, and they were all worried, despite Jack telling them that he was fine, he's an adult, he can handle it. Bob goes out to get some coffee, and Alicia runs to the restroom, all of them needing a break from lugging boxes to the room from the car. She comes back to the room quietly to find Jack on the bed, head in his hands, shoulders tense. She taps on the door quietly, letting him know that she's there. He doesn't acknowledge her until she pulls him into her arms. He pushes his face into her shoulder, wrapping his shaking hands around her back. She feels him breathing deeply, trying to calm himself down, and she rubs her hand across his back, the other one smoothing the hair on the back of his head. Eventually, he's breathing evenly, and Bob still isn't back. He rubs at his eyes, and assures her that he's okay, and he'll be fine, he just had to get it out of his system. She nods along, but already promises herself that she and Bob are going to make it a habit to call at least every few days. 

She doesn't expect her son to have a friend called Shitty, but when they help him move into the frat house, there he is, moving in right along with him. She meets more of his teammates too, and Bob treats a few of them to lunch, on him. Alicia loves Shitty, he's funny, and he makes her son happy, and he understands Jack's situation and doesn't bother him about rumors like other guys on the team used to, and that's really all she could ask of any of Jack's friends. 

She doesn't expect to be talking to the general manager for the Providence Falconers at his graduation, but she's a lovely young lady who has so much faith in Jack that he'll be good on her team, and Alicia trusts that she's right. She tells her about the graduation day traditions from her days at Samwell after the ceremony when they're all on the quad, and she watches Jack saying goodbye to his friends. She's seen such an improvement in him from the days when he started, and she's so happy for him and proud of him, but she also worries what the NHL will do to him. But when she sees him talking to Bob, and how the light is back in his eyes right before he dashes off back towards the frat house, she knows, somehow, that he'll be okay. 

She doesn't expect that, on one of their Skype calls months later, he confesses two things. He confesses that he and Kenny had a fling in Juniors, and he confesses that he's been seeing one of his old teammates -- the small one, the baker, do you remember him? Alicia is over the moon, and she can tell by the light in his eyes that he's happy with Eric, and that's all she's ever really wanted for Jack. She loves Eric already, because he's sweet and she adores his accent and he makes some of the best desserts she's ever had. 

She expects that Jack will get better after the overdose, but she could never have dreamt that he would be this happy, with a group of incredible friends that bring out the best in him, and a loving boyfriend who makes him happier than he's been in his life and that he's so serious about and so in love with. She didn't expect that he would be a successful NHL player after the rumors and the rehab, but he's a fan favorite and he loves his job and the guys he plays with, and he's even working on coming out to the team about him and Eric. 

She didn't expect everything to be perfect for him, but somehow it is. 

**Author's Note:**

> I don't think this is like anything I've written before? So I hope it's decent and y'all like it! This was mostly just an excuse for me to write about my Jack and Alicia post-OD headcanons in one space lmao. I imagine that in the home video they were dancing to Rick Springfield and the soft music Alicia put on in the sixth paragraph was The Goo Goo Dolls. :')
> 
> Feel free to leave kudos or drop a comment! (I try to reply to all comments!)
> 
> Please note: this work can be found on other websites such as Quotev under the same screen name (talkingtoangxls), and on my Check, Please! sideblog (sinbinzimms.tumblr.com).
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters used in this story nor the webcomic that they come from. All rights go to Ngozi. Not affiliated with Ngozi or Check, Please!.


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